Review: Japan Airlines Business Class Tokyo to New York

A while back, I managed to redeem my American Aadvantage miles to book a business class seat on a flight between Tokyo and New York JFK on Japan Airlines’ 787 Dreamliner. With a total flight time of nearly 13 hours, I had a lot of time to enjoy the experience. Here’s how it went:

At Narita, business class passengers have access to the Sakura lounge, which is identified on your boarding pass.

Sakura lounge

The lounge itself is spread over two floors: sitting area on the 1st floor, and dining on the 2nd floor. After checking out the area downstairs, I headed upstairs to get some food.

Japanese curry: one of my favorite dishes!

A while later, it was time to board. Here’s a view of the aircraft:

JL 004 NRT-JFK

In-Flight Experience

Seating configuration on the flight in business class is in a 2-2-2 configuration. And here’s my seat!

JL004 Seat 2A

I’m a pretty short guy (5’ 5’’) and my legs couldn’t even reach the foot rest!

Can’t reach the foot rest!

A view of my monitor. Nice and big!

Our route map

Seat controls. More than I’ve ever seen on any flight!

JL004 seat controls

The seat is definitely more than just a seat. In fact, Japan Airlines officially calls this their “SkySuite.”

Seat length

Ready for take off!

Ready for takeoff!

For those sitting near the window, a sort of wall separates you and your neighbor, which made this seat particularly private.

JL004 seat dividers

For perspective, here’s how the business class section looks like.

JL004 business class section

When you’re ready for your bed to be made up, you can request turn-down service from the flight attendant. The padding JAL used was amazingly soft.

JL004 lie-flat seat

Another interesting aspect about flying with JAL was the bathrooms. Specifically, it was my first time seeing a bidet (or any option frankly) available on an airplane.

Toilet options on JL 004

JAL Business Class Dining

Business class passengers had the option of going with either Japanese or Western cuisine. Here’s the menu.

JL004 Menu

JL004 page 1JL menu food options

I opted for the kobachi bowls as my appetizer. Here’s one of them:

JL004 Kobachi bowl

I also thought this simple crane to rest your chopsticks was a nicely done touch.

JL004 crane chopsticks holder

View from the Wing:

This was my first time traveling on a Dreamliner. One thing that I thought was interesting was how you raise and lower your window shades. Rather than a manual window shade, the Dreamliner had a button that gradually made the window opaque. I definitely thought that this was something different, and I’m not sure I quite like it. It’s a lot easier to simply pull up or down a shade rather than pressing a button.

JL004 Dreamliner window shade button

A favorite part of flying between the US Northeast and East Asia is the wonderful scenery we got to fly over.

View of the Canadian Arctic

Frozen waters somewhere over Canada

Overall

Japan Airlines Business Class Sky Suite was definitely a memorable and worthwhile experience. I’d highly recommend opting for a seat near window as it affords extra privacy. Overall I highly enjoyed this particular journey, and can’t wait to do it again!

About Author

Jason

I’m Jason Bilog, a twenty-something young professional that has lived in the DC area since 2010. Follow me along as I share my travel stories, tips on how to travel more while spending less, all while keeping your full-time job.